No quarters required

This generation of kids and teens are pretty lucky when it comes to time wasters on the PC. Instead of Minesweeper or, my favorite Windows game from back in the day, Ski Free, today you can play some 900 classic arcade games right in your browser. And if you're bored with those, head over to Google Maps and navigate Pac-Man through your neighborhood, or anywhere else that suits your fancy.

Lines have been drawn

Some changes are coming to the way Microsoft's Project Spartan and Internet Explorer browsers will handle the web once Windows 10 ships. As originally conceived, both browsers would use the new rendering engine built for Project Spartan, and both would be capable of switching back to the legacy Trident engine to load certain sites that use dated technologies, and also to ensure compatibility among specific enterprise sites. Not anymore.

Well, that was quick

The recently concluded Pwn2Own contest—a lucrative hacking competition held as part of the annual CanSecWest conference—saw all four major internet browsers get their soft(ware) underbellies exposed. Three of the ten browser bugs exposed at the two-day event were in Firefox, which emerged as the second-most pwned browser at the event behind Internet Explorer. But there’s one area where Mozilla has clearly left its competitors behind.

Not a single browser was left standing

Could the world use yet another browser? Sure, if security is at the forefront of your mind. At the annual Pwn2Own hacking contest that took place this week, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari all fell prey to remote code execution exploits by the second day. Not to make a mountain out of a mole hill, this isn't unusual, as every year hackers gather at CanSecWest's conference to show off their skills for prizes.

Also new is the the option to automatically pause plugin content

Each browser update usually contains no more than two or three noteworthy new features in this rapid-release-cycle era, and Chrome 42 is no exception. It entered beta a few days back with a couple of notable features — well, at least on the desktop front.

Another major change for Mozilla

Johnathan Nightingale is stepping down as Mozilla's vice president of Firefox and leaving the company effective March 31. Before he leaves, he wants you to know that Firefox is in a good place, that "2014 was an incredible year," and that Mozilla today is stronger than it's ever been. He also knows that his departure will have people questioning all those things and will bring out the trolls.

Current version of Project Spartan is said to be only marginally better than IE11 in HTML5 compliance

When it officially unveiled the Project Spartan (codename) browser last month, Microsoft said it would not be part of “our first few Insider builds.” It is hard to say how much longer we might have to wait for the first publicly available Windows 10 preview build with Project Spartan, but one thing is for sure: leaks, whether of entire builds or images therefrom, are never far off.

Hackers have a new security hole to go phishing in

If you use Internet Explorer 11, be aware that researchers have discovered a zero-day vulnerability that could allow attackers to change content on domains remotely. The exploit could also allow hackers to inject malicious content in browsers, steal personal data, and track your online movements. That's the bad news. And the good? You're unlikely to fall prey to such an attack, according to Microsoft.

New browser seeks feedback from power users

Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder and former CEO of Opera Software, is back in the browser game with a new startup. It's called Vivaldi Technologies, of which Tetzchner is also the co-founder and CEO of, and he's just made a technical preview of his Vivaldi browser available to the public. While still early in development, it's already fleshed out with features that may attract Opera fans, like mouse gestures and a speed dial interface for displaying your favorite tabs on the new tabs page.

Rumored features include digital inking support and tab grouping

Microsoft has a special press event scheduled for January 21, when it will finally turn the spotlight on Windows 10’s consumer-specific features. Chances are Microsoft could end up formally announcing the new "Spartan" browser, which we first heard about late last month, at the upcoming event, though it’s hard to say anything with certainty at this stage. Well, it may or may not figure on the upcoming company’s agenda for the event, but Spartan has already gotten the tech media buzzing.